Video: Elizabeth Taylor Portrayed by Actress Who Seems to Have Actually Seen an Elizabeth Taylor Movie

Because last year’s Lindsay-Lohan-as-Elizabeth-Taylor biopic was disappointing as anything other than a Lifetime-sponsored drinking game, television has quickly pumped out another, more deserving Elizabeth Taylor biopic as an olive branch to the universe. The BBC America movie, Burton and Taylor, starring Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter as the titular screen legends and twice-married couple, has issued its first trailer. From these 48 seconds of whimsically scored evidence, we gather that the second take on a Taylor TV biopic has several things going for it.

In particular, Helena Bonham Carter—an immensely talented actor only handicapped by the fact that she looks like Helena Bonham Carter, mad-raven-like coiffure and all, in every role she has ever played—appears to have actually seen Elizabeth Taylor in films and television interviews. More than that, she seems to have incorporated some of those observations into her performance—perhaps best when she channels Taylor’s girlish squeak to say, “God no,” she has not read a script someone is inquiring about. Also going for it: the fact that Bonham Carter can seemingly summon Taylor’s trademark wit, playfulness, and—no offense, Lindsay Lohan—neural activity behind the eyes, and that the director seems to possess commands better than “worse” and dialogue more sophisticated thanLiz & Dick’s porn-film-quality exchanges.

The TV movie will premiere on BBC America sometime this fall and chronicle Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as they prepare their 1983 revival of Noël Coward’s stage playPrivate Lives and, judging from the trailer, contemplate their own addiction issues while lounging in stylish caftans.